I know there were a lot of shows I ended up either missing or not getting around to watching. As well as this column on OASG, I have begun to write reviews of Netflix shows on Japan Curiosity, so there’s that too. Some of the shows I regret not catching include A Place Further Than The Universe, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, Beatless and Mitsuboshi Colors. Maybe I’ll get the opportunity later on in the year, but considering I also have home-study for my teacher training to do, who is to say?

In the meantime, shows have begun to end this week:

Starting off with what is usually the first show I end up watching each week, purely because it comes up first on Thursdays. Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles has been an…experience to watch. Half of me loved Koizumi going to these ramen places, which actually exist in real life (eg. the Ramen Museum, or the Pineapple Ramen shop) and the girls being converted to the noodle side. The other half though just got annoyed with Yuu’s obsession. I discovered (via flicking through the manga) that Yuu is a much better and calmer character, so I guess this mean Yuu in the anime adaptation is much worse.

While I liked how we got to learn more about ramen (from the mundane instant ramen to the more exotic recipes), I wished this show was more like what Wakako-zake had. That short show had a very unique charm to it; as Wakako visited each bar and got to savor good food and good drink, we warmed to her a lot and she ended up being someone we wanted to share a drink with. With the characters in Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles, we don’t get that because the focus is on this strange girl who loves ramen more than anything in the world, the charm is kind of gone. While I had fun watching it, this will be a show I will not return to.

Okay, time to reflect on how yuribait girls ended. Well…Citrus started off pretty good, with Yuzu struggling with her sexuality and Mei actually enjoying torturing her…then as the arcs came in thick and fast (and they were fast; the pacing on this show was too much at times), it started to get worse and worse. I was a little annoyed that, as time went on, we saw less and less of both Harumin (best girl) and Himeko. Then Matsuri arrived, and just made the show a bit of a torture to watch, as I just wanted to shake Yuzu so much and tell her that her old childhood friend was in fact using her. The final arc was just as rushed though, and I felt like it didn’t really get much ground before the ending arrived, and both Yuzu and Mei agreed on consensual, as opposed to plain sexual assault.

This has not been the worst yuri anime I’ve seen (I’m looking at you NTR -Netsuzou Trap-), but this show could have been so much better if:

  • They paced it much better, giving us time to look at each character and make good judgements of them, instead of them getting minimal screen time.
  • They rewrote the script. Lines just got sloppy sometimes, and it just got a little unbearable halfway through the show.
  • More Harumin.

Saying that though, Citrus has been a pretty show to watch, plus they didn’t mess around when it came to the few yuri scenes it actually had. It wasn’t like they did it to totally please the pervy viewers either, which was nice and quite refreshing too. Would I recommend this show to the yuri-lovers? I…guess. But anyone else might just get frustrated with it all.

The finale of Yuru Camp is a reflection of what happened right from the very start of Episode 1, which is what we were all expecting anyway but there’s no problem with that whatsoever. This ‘journey’ of Rin going from a solo camper who likes to keep to herself, to a much more outgoing person with a new best friend who loves camping as much as she does has been very fun to watch. Chiaki and Aoi have been acting as fun secondary characters who both shine in the spotlight and know their boundaries when Rin and Nadeshiko take center stage. The brief addition of drunk Sensei has been pretty funny as well; after making a short appearance with her little sister (yes, that was a girl, not a guy), it comes out that she is a new teacher at the girls’ school, and eventually becomes the Outdoor Activites club advisor.

One thing I recently discovered about the OP of Yuru Camp is that the lyrics slightly change as each episode passes. For episode 1, Rin says “no” to camping with Nadeshiko…by episode 8, “no” becomes “maybe”…and for the final episode, “maybe” becomes “yes”. Very very sweet, and another reason why Yuru Camp has been such a joy to watch. I’m glad I chose it at the last minute. I’m conflicted though on whether it is a good idea for a second season to come, because Yuru Camp has worked just fine on its own, and adding anything additional to the story could make it not so great. I only need to reference the recent (and brilliant) New Game!; its second season ended up turning more towards drama than comedy, adding the story of Aoba having new responsibilities with the company’s new game, and with Ko moving to work in France…and it really didn’t work so well.

Nonetheless, I recommend Yuru Camp to any SOL show lover.

Darling in the Franxx has reached the halfway point now; this show will carry on through the spring, just in time for Trigger’s new projects (which they have still kept rather secret) to begin. These kids have sort of stopped squabbling now, and as the Klaxosaur threat remains for the people on the Plantations, while I welcome no more filler episodes, I actually kind of miss the petty drama. This week sees partners switch around and end up becoming more compatible with each other. While last week focused on Zorome, who ended up meeting a woman he thought he has met before when he tours the Plantation city, this week focuses on the other parasite who have seen the least screen time: Mitsuru, Ikuno, Futoshi and Kokoro. The stamens and pistils end up switching and becoming more compatible with each other, and this switch only reinforces the strong romance emotion that none of these kids totally understand. Meanwhile, as they switch, some other story point comes full-center this week:

So this is something that has kind of been building for weeks; Ikuno’s true sexual orientation. She can no longer find a connection with her assigned partner Mitsuru anymore, who has been a serial jack-ass to everyone in the show. It was actually quite satisfying to see Zero Two unleash her wrath on him when he tried to pilot with her a few weeks ago. But in these past couple of weeks, she has been attempting to get closer to the other girls…Ichigo in particular; it’s not hard to see she has a huge crush on her.

Now that Ikuno pilots with Futoshi, who is considerably less of a douche than Mitsuru, we’ll see if she can find a kinship with him, or end up following her incredibly naive heart.

I will end with my final review on my classic/out-of-season show. Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun is both a shoujo classic and a send-up of past shoujo classics, and that alone makes this essential viewing, even if romance shows aren’t really your thing, since you can just laugh at how these clueless kids try to understand love and romance whilst working on what they love (may it be drawing manga or acting). The finale really teases us with what could happen; we are hinted that Nozaki really does feel something for Chiyo, but after 12 episodes of his obliviousness, a part of us ends up thinking that what he whispers in her ear at the summer festival ends up being something along the lines of…I don’t know…how he should write the summer festival arc in his manga, or what kind of new character to develop…or something. Also, what I loved about the show is that there is no real and genuine hatred shown. Sure, Kashima drives Hori insane, but he ultimately knows that one can’t carry on without the other, and Wakamatsu may end up getting extremely frustrated with Seo invading his basketball practice, but the feelings he has for her are too strong to end up being any kind of true hatred.

Time to roll on the Spring. I have already decided my shows, but I will be doing less, due to my teacher training. Oh, and thank you for picking Princess Principal as my classic/out-of-season show for the next cour, as it is a show I have been itching to watch but never found an excuse to.